Spartacus: Blood And Sand debuted in January of 2010 on Starz to fairly mixed reviews. Developed by Steve S. DeKnight, best known for his work on long running cult hits like Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Smallville, the show was executive produced by DeKnight, Rob Tapert and Sam Raimi. So yeah, this is a series from the guys who brought you the aforementioned shows as well as The Evil Dead movies.

The series is set in 73BC where we meet a young Thracian who enlists in the Roman army to fight against the Getae and put an end to their raids into Roman territory. This man (Andy Whitfield) leaves his beautiful wife, Sura (Erin Cummings), to make this happen but figures once it's over with he'll be able to settle down and start a family with her. Unfortunately for him, his commanding officer, Claudius Gaber (Craig Parker) decides that he's going to earn himself a promotion by having his Thracian troops deal with a bigger problem by advancing on the Greeks. Our Thracian hero rallies his fellow soldiers and winds up leading them against Claudius and while this is very noble of him, it proves to be a bad idea. He's captured and sentenced to die in the gladiatorial arena while Sura is sentenced to a life in slavery.

Things start to change once he enters the arena, however. Here he proves to be very adapt with a sword and after slaughtering a few of his opponents, his death sentence is reduced and he's given the name Spartacus. He's then bought by Lentulus Batiatus (John Hannah), who basically runs a training camp for gladiators. Lentulus sees in Spartacus a great future but all Spartacus wants is to get back to his wife and resume some semblance of a normal life. Lentulus makes a deal with Spartacus and promises to find him and reunite him with Sura if he'll fight for him in the arena. A more experienced gladiator named Doctore (Peter Mensah) takes him under his wing and trains him to become the best he can be, which doesn't sit well with another gladiator named Crixus (Manu Bennett). As Spartacus gets better and better in the arena, he soon becomes not just a celebrity but an important political figure as well and he unwittingly sets into motion a series of events that will shape Rome in the days to come.

Spartacus: Blood And Sand sets new limits for what you can get away with on TV. Shockingly violent and chock full of intense blood and gore, the series also features more full frontal nudity from both its male and female cast members than anything Cinemax or The Red Shoe Diaries ever hoped for. This, on the surface at least, equates the series to little more than glossy exploitation, a show that revels in cheap, tawdry tactics to get a rise out of its audience without ever asking them to think. That said, as the show evolves, it does start to become more than just tits and gore (though those two elements never diminish). As characters become more fleshed out and are developed to the point where they start to show some real personality, the story does become more interesting. The sensationalist aspects never go away, but the series does start to rely less on them as it progresses.

As far as the cast is concerned, Whitfield makes for a good lead. He isn't the most versatile of thespians but he does a good job of looking tough and he carries himself well. As his character builds his skill level and in turn his confidence level, he rises to the challenge and infuses his performance with enough macho bravura that we can buy him in the part. The rest of the cast are fine as well, with Bennett making for a fun foil to Whitfield's more noble character and Cummings offering up a sympathetic supporting character we can feel for. The series never gets so deep or heavy that we're going to lie awake at night wondering what happens to these people but it at least makes them interesting enough that we can have fun with the show.

And that right there is what makes Spartacus: Blood And Sand as entertaining as it is. If you into this expecting something heady and even intelligent you'll likely walk out after the first episode after being bombarded with loads of slow motion bloodshed and CGI arterial spray. That said, if you go in with your expectations in check, you can definitely enjoy this series as the glossy exploitation that it is. Sure, it could have used more exposition here and there and focused more on the political aspects of the series and its ramifications instead of naked ladies and severed limbs, but those of us who like naked ladies and severed limbs will have a good time with this show, historical accuracy be damned.

The series does frequently rip off (yes, not just pay homage to, but literally copy from) 300 in its visual style and it drinks from the well of Scott's Gladiator on a semi-regular bases as well, but thankfully this subsides after the first few episodes where the series eschews the constant slow motion/sped up fight scenes that were obnoxious then and are still obnoxious now in favor of some smoother cinematography. The show also uses a predictably sun bleached and overly gritty palette, but in its defense, it is called Spartacus: Blood And Sand, so you have to at least half way expect that going into it. It'll be interesting to see where the series goes from here. As it moves through its second half it does get more politically inspired and it's all the better and more interesting for it. Though it has likely built its core audience from the sex and blood, it's clever writing and interesting stories that will ultimately hold that audience and if DeKnight and company can ramp up that aspect in the follow ups that are planned, many of us will probably come back for a second round.

Video:

Spartacus: Blood And Sand - The Complete First Season arrives on Blu-ray in an AVC encoded 1080p 1.78.1 widescreen high definition presentation that really looks very good. The show is shot in a fairly specific way with a lot of attention paid to color reproduction and style, but this doesn't come at the cost of fine detail. The image is certainly a stylized one, but close up shots often times look reference quality with long distance and medium shots also generally impressing. As the series progresses, you'll start to pick up on just how much picture information there really is here, noting how facial hair and stubble differ from character to character and noticing the craggy lines in various faces that appear throughout the show. Detail isn't limited to just the actors, however - the texture that you'll notice in the costumes worn throughout the show is impressive as is the amount of detail that you'll pick up on seen in the various sets that are used. Black levels generally look nice and strong without sucking out the shadow detail while color reproduction is typically very good, though sometimes leaning towards the hotter side of the palette, obviously a stylistic choice on the part of the producers. There are a few spots where this 'hot' looks makes some of the darker scenes a bit too bright looking and the series does tend to really pump up the reds of the bloodshed that is so frequently seen on screen (again, a stylistic choice, but one that might irritate some), but aside from that, this series looks excellent.